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City Manager resigns

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Updated (3:55PM) At a media conference held over the lunch hour, Mayor David Miller announced that Shirley Hoy, the City of Toronto’s City Manager, will resign effective October 6, 2008, as Spacing had reported earlier today.

Mayor Miller also announced that he would be recommending the current Deputy City Manager and Chief Financial Officer Joe Pennachetti be promoted to fill Hoy’s position on a permanent basis. That recommendation will be voted on by Executive Committee and City Council in September.

According to city councillor and budget chief Shelley Carroll, the reason for not conducting an international search akin to the processes used to select the relatively new heads of the Toronto Transit Commission and Toronto Police Service is that Pennachetti’s appointment follows a succession plan that has been in place for a “long time.” Councillor Carroll also reasoned that Pennachetti’s “exemplary record” and acute knowledge of civic operations would enable the City to continue moving forward in its current direction without disruption.

Pennachetti is a long-time public servant who has worked as a financial manager and senior financial manager at several municipalities, including Edmonton, Peel and York. Holding a Bachelor of Commerce and a Masters in Business Administration, Pennachetti is also a Certified General Accountant.

Rarely one to seek out the lens of a camera, Pennachetti found himself front and centre during the City of Toronto’s consultations on taxes held in 2007.

There is no word on what Hoy plans to do come October, but she has indicated that she wishes to remain in the health and social services sector. Prior to her appointment as City Manager, Hoy served as a senior bureaucrat at Exhibition Place, the Government of Ontario and the City of Toronto.
Word of Hoy’s announcement began spreading early this morning when the City Manager sent out an email to members of Council and the Toronto Public Service. The email came as a surprise to councillors from across the political spectrum, including at least some of those who serve on the Executive Committee.

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16 comments

  1. Maybe she is leaving before the new MPAC assessments come in. S**t is going to hit the fan. By my calculations by having higher residential assessment growth compared to non residential assessment growth and a fixed ratio, Toronto residents might be in for a 20% increase in taxes.

  2. Wait a cotton pickin’ minute – nothing against Joe Pennachetti per se but aren’t we going to do a search?? Shouldn’t there be a whole bunch of “world class” people gagging to come work for our “world class” mayor and “world class” city?

    I’m hoping the Star has the wrong end of the stick here and Pennachetti is on a pro tem basis pending a proper recruitment search.

  5. At what the city manager gets paid (low 6 figure salary), I wouldn’t expect many “world class” managers lining up to take this job.

  6. 2007 Salaries

    Hoy – $311,128.80 and taxable benefits of $9,079.13 Pennachetti – $244,897.32 and taxable benefits of $13,309.32

    Joe is getting quite a raise!

  7. J, Hoy’s salary and benefits are not automatically inherited by Pennachetti. Pennachetti will be presented with a contract offer if Council votes to approve him for the job and through that process his compensation will be determined. It is not unusual for a new senior bureaucrat to start at a lower salary than their predecessor if promoted from within.

  8. “By my calculations by having higher residential assessment growth compared to non residential assessment growth and a fixed ratio, Toronto residents might be in for a 20% increase in taxes.”

    Wouldn’t Revenue Neutral Ratios allow the city to prevent this from happening?

  11. Last one: Ottawa Manager 275k, Deputy 212k

    It seems that cities like ours are inflating the market because Vancouver used Toronto and Ottawa as reasons to give their manager a 30% increase in 2004 (she earned 292k last year)

    http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/citystates/archive/2008/04/30/find-out-what-your-favourite-city-of-vancouver-employee-made-last-year.aspx

    http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/ctyclerk/newsreleases2004/NRcompensation.htm

    I’m not suggesting we underpay our city management, but like city procurement if you preselect a vendor, it’s pretty hard to do anything other than meet their asking price.

  12. Obviously Joe would not automatically get Hoy’s salary. I was merely highlighting that the number was a bit more than “low 6 figure”

  13. Darwin,

    The ratios are set as a percentage of residential. The city has promised to move them to a ratio of 2.5, from the near 4 times now, over varying lengths of time.

    The 2.5 ratio is still higher than the maximum set out by the provincial fairness ratios.

  14. I guess the city will have to revise their 2.5 number upward, however the actual taxes businesses and residences will end up paying should end up being the same as under the old plan.

  15. WHAT!! Are we collectively insane? The City Manager of Toronto is paid only 20% less than The President of The United States!

    This in a regime and era where ordinary taxpayers are seeing the services cut back and charges for everything under the sun; a madcap, totally confusing and obtrusive garbage system; an excessive number of Councillors(likely vastly paid also); roads that are like an artillery duel was fought on them and wasteful TTC expendituers SEE: St. Clair ROW)and the overall aura and Orwellian ‘Nanny State’ which has taken hold here.

    And Howard Moscoe says we haven’t seen anything yet?

  16. In truth, I think this has less to do with any headbutting that might have existed betweeen the Mayor’s office and the City’s top bureaucrat — and more to do with how civil service pension entitlements work. I don’t want to comment on whether I think she earned her keep. But here’s one of her quotes (from a late 2007 story in the National Post on the 10th anniversary of amalgamation) that I wholeheartedly agree with: “I know that citizens feel disconnected from their government … I think there is a sense that easy access to city government, as well as meaningful engagement of citizens in issues like planning … they feel we don’t have the effective structures in place yet.”

    …succinctly and diplomatically said…

    http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/archive/2007/12/28/amalgamation-10-years-later.aspx